When my cell phone rang I looked at the caller ID as always and when I saw a number I didn’t recognize I was tempted to let voice mail pick it up. After all, it was after 8 PM so I figured it was a wrong number and not a business call. When the quiet voice on the other end asked for Tyler, I was taken aback. I asked who it was and found out it was Dorian, a fellow classmates. I had made Tyler remember my cell phone number in case of emergency instead of having him memorize my sister’s house phone number. If someone needs to contact me this is the easiest way to do so. Still I was surprised to find that he had given my number out and, according to Dorian, Tyler had asked him to call him. I sat there thinking– my baby’s growing up. His little friends are calling him on the phone! I let him talk for about five minutes. Although he was in bed he wasn’t asleep yet. I also told him to tell Dorian not to call after 8 anymore because that was his bedtime.
This got me to thinking, is there a particular age to let a child start receiving personal calls? I suppose if he’s old enough to give out the number, then he should be allowed telephone privileges, as long as he observes certain rules. So I decided to sit down and write some telephone privilege rules. Since he was sleep at the time I will explain them to him tomorrow. Here’s what I decided will be the rules for Tyler:
(1) No calls after 8 PM when you have school the next day.
(2) Absolutely no calls after 9 PM on any night .
(3) Limit calls to 30 minutes.
(4) When placing calls always be courteous (Hello, may I speak to so and so, please).
I think these simple rules will be enough to start with. If I see any behaviors that I think needs correcting then I can add them later. But for now I guess I will just loosen the apron strings a bit and let my baby grow up.
Do you allow your little ones to talk on the phone?